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Thursday, February 12, 2015

Flashback: The 1983 DARK SHADOWS Festival

The first east coast DARK SHADOWS FESTIVAL was held in Newark, N.J., on the last weekend of September in 1983. It might look a little small to fans used to the sprawling event held at the Lyndhurst Estate. This festival attracted about 100 fans, who gathered to meet cast members Lara Parker and Donna Wandrey, as well as DARK SHADOWS writer Ron Sproat.

I stumbled onto the festival program earlier this week and wanted to share it, and hoped to find some images from the event to help embellish the post. Luckily, someone videotaped some of the festival activities. Even better, they uploaded the video to Youtube! You can watch about 30 minutes from the festival below. The picture quality is surprisingly good, all things considered.

The festival booklet (above) will give you an idea of what was happening in fandom back in 1983. Part of that year's events was a screening of HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, a costume contest, and a ballot allowing guests to vote on their favorite DARK SHADOWS-related movies and TV shows. The program also includes an obituary for actor David Ford, who died the previous August.